Janet H. Kwuon

Kwuon chairs Reed Smith’s global commercial disputes group, the firm’s largest practice. A Korean-American, she is the first diverse U.S. woman elected to Reed Smith’s executive committee, and she is on the diversity and inclusion council, the talent committee and the audit committee.

Clients include the University of California Regents and UCLA; Eli Lilly and Co.; AbbVie Inc. and its Allergan plc subsidiary; and Endo Pharmaceutical plc. Kwuon said she is often one of the few professional diverse women in the courtroom for the high-stakes litigation she undertakes for her pharma and medical device company and higher educational institution clients.

She recently resolved a major case for the UC Regents and UCLA over claims that a medical device called a duodenoscope made by Olympus Corp. spread superbug infections to hospital patients. Olympus American Duodenoscope Litigation, JCCP 4885 (L.A. Super. Ct., consolidated Aug. 12, 2016).

Kwuon’s move to Reed Smith’s management ranks came recently, she said, after two decades of limiting her role to client work while she raised a family. When Kwuon’s empty nest era arrived, she was determined to get more involved. “I was a late bloomer in leadership, but I started catching up around 2017. I realized even my one voice could help shape firm-wide decision-making and make me a better mentor and sponsor for diverse and women lawyers at the firm.”

She and the firm back then partnered with a longtime client, the Association of National Advertisers, to create the #SeeHer movement, aimed at boosting accurate and positive portrayals of girls and women in advertising and media. She spoke out about her role models growing up, spotlighting the value and impact of seeing professional Asian-American women like Tritia Toyota and Connie Chung in positions of power and influence.

“Now I’m the most senior diverse woman in leadership at the firm,” she said. “Reed Smith has always been ahead on issues of diversity and equal opportunity.” When, as a young associate in the early 1990s, she joined Crosby Heafey Roach & May—which merged with Reed Smith in 2002—she was attracted by the then-unusual fact that three of its San Francisco partners were Asian American.

Kwuon has experienced anti-Asian bias, most recently at a rental home when her new neighbors shouted at her that they didn’t want to catch Covid-19 from her—even though she was wearing face protection and they were not. “For me, it highlighted how important it is for our profession to lead efforts to address discrimination in and out of the workplace,” she said.

She and her firm have now partnered with a group of Fortune 1000 general counsel and more than 40 law firms to create The Alliance for Asian American Justice, a national pro bono initiative to offer legal services to victims of anti-Asian hate.

“This firm is exercising its social consciousness, and my active role here is to be visible and supportive of all our diverse talent,” Kwuon said.

— John Roemer